Taylor is going to be a UPS pilot: She knows this, and you should, too.

“When she was about 5, we took her to the Mall of America, and she got to fly in a plane, and she just knew that’s what she wanted to do with her life,” her mem said. “She was just amazed by it.”

She had taken Taylor to a Girls in Aviation day at Bowman Field, and the UPS Wishes Delivered crew was there, filming and scouting for a candidate, and they chose Taylor.

Wishes Delivered fulfills the dreams of children in various ways. In the past, a young boy who had a special relationship with a driver, was given a custom-made UPS package truck to drive around his neighborhood. The team once delivered snow to children in Texas who had never experienced snow before.

The locomotive made its initial run on the first six miles of track of the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company. Chartered in 1827, the same year that the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was incorporated, the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company steamed out of Charleston. The new line was designed to make Charleston competitive with Savannah, Georgia, for the cotton trade.

Over the next three years the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company became, for a time, the world’s longest railway line. The company was a predecessor of J. P. Morgan’s Southern Railway Company, which grew out of the realignment of southern railways following the Civil War.

According to a report in the City Gazette, November 22, 1821 issue, a railroad was suggested to run from Charleston to Hamburg and a branch on to Columbia. Horatio Allen (1802-1890) was the chief engineer for The South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company from 1829 – 1835. (This line is now a part of the Southern Railway System.) On December 19, 1827, The South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company was chartered. Work began, January 9, 1830, on the line to Branchville, SC which was 62 miles from Charleston and it was opened in November, 1832. The line to Hamburg (adjacent to Augusta, GA) was opened on October 1, 1833. The line was now the longest continuous railroad in the world, 136 miles in length, and first to carry the US mail. (Derrick 1930, 10) This route took passengers on the 11 ½ hour trip with 7 stops for $6.75 one way. (Edgar 1998, 283)

The “Best Friend” had a brief, but historic, life. It was completed and put into regular service on December 25, 1830. On June 17, 1831, three men were injured in an explosion. A tied down safety valve due to the noise of the steam escaping, caused the boiler to blow up. Parts of the “Best Friend” were used in construction of the “Phoenix.” The “Best Friend” having been designed by C.E. Detmold, chief engineer was Horatio Allen, who early on advocated steam power locomotion and Nicholas W. Darrell became the first railway engineer. Nicholas W. Darrell died in 1869 after running engines for many years and having the distinction of being the first man to open the throttle on the “Best Friend.” The “Best Friend of Charleston” was modeled after its forerunner “Best Friend” and was known as the first locomotive built in the United States and used in service of transportation. (Southern Railway System, 1) http://www.teachingushistory.org/lessons/charlestonrailroad.html

The “Stourbridge Lion,” in 1829 was the first locomotive to run on tracks in America.

Emily Post began her career as a writer at the age of thirty-one. Her romantic stories of European and American society were serialized in Vanity Fair, Collier’s, McCall’s, and other popular magazines. Many were also successfully published in book form.

Originally published by Collier’s Weekly, By Motor To The Golden Gate describes her travels with her cousin Alice and her son as she embarks on the 27-day car trip across America, complete with the elements that make any road trip memorable: the nauseating climbs along muddy roads, the elegance of stylish downtown hotels and the “eccentric topsy-turviness” of Midwestern cities.

Ralph is one of the premier living Packard collectors, not just in this country, but in the world. His collection numbers 85 classic automobiles, every single one of them 100-point concours quality. If you’ve been to Pebble Beach, Amelia Island, Meadow Brook or the Glenmoor Gathering in the past two decades, you’ve run across one of Ralph’s prizes at some point, and probably more than once.

The Marano collection is one of America’s greatest. And unlike some collectors, Ralph doesn’t try to hide what he’s got. The glassed-in building in Garwood is his private museum.

Among the most sought-after Packards are those with custom-built bodies, especially from Darrin. Mr. Marano said he was the only collector to own a Packard Darrin from each of its years of manufacture, 1937 through 1942.

Mr. Marano has owned some Darrins with celebrity provenance.

In 1985, he acquired a 1942 Darrin 180 Victoria driven by George Peppard in the television series “Banacek.”

In 1989, he traded cars and cash for a ’38 Darrin that Al Jolson commissioned for Ruby Keeler.

His red ’37 Darrin 120 convertible Victoria was originally owned by Clark Gable. “Gable didn’t like its running board option, and sold it back to Darrin, who sold it to Errol Flynn,” Mr. Marano said.

Show cars were important to Packard, helping to project an image of a company able to compete with the advanced styling of larger automakers. Mr. Marano decided several years ago that he would try to acquire all of the extant Packard show cars. He now owns a 1952 Pan American two-passenger design study; the ’53 Balboa; the fiberglass-body Panther of 1954; and the 1955 Request.

They’ve created a YouTube series that follows the design, fabrication, and testing of America’s first mech in preparation for the world’s first Giant Robot Duel between us and Suidobashi Heavy Industry of Japan.